Shortcut Properties

To open the property sheet of a shortcut and view or edit its properties, double-click its Browser entry or diagram symbol. The information that you will see depends on your settings for the Internal Shortcut and External Shortcut general options and the External Shortcut Properties model option

To view the target object property sheet in place of the shortcut, click Tools > General Options > Dialog and select Target object in Internal Shortcut and External Shortcut. To maximize the information on external shortcut property sheets and symbols, click Tools > Model Options > Dialog and select All in External Shortcut Properties.

Note: External shortcuts can display properties defined in the standard PowerDesigner metamodel and in extensions that are attached to the target model, but not any that are defined in extensions embedded in the target model. If you want to display such embedded extensions, you should export the extension file from the target model and then attach it as a shared extension.

The following properties are available on the General tab of a shortcut property sheet or on the Shortcut tab of a target object property sheet:

Property

Description

Target type

Specifies the type of the target model and the type of object which the shortcut references.

Name

Specifies the name of the target object. Click the Properties tool to the right of this field to view or edit its properties.

Click the Change Target Object at the bottom of the dialog to open a dialog to allow you to choose a different target object (which must be of the same type, and cannot already be referenced by another shortcut in the same package).

Code

Specifies the code of the target object.

Target model

Specifies the name of the model to which the target object belongs. Click the Properties tool to the right of this field to view or edit its properties.

Target package

Specifies the name of the model package to which the target object belongs. Click the Properties tool to the right of this field to view or edit its properties.

Shortcut type

Specifies whether the shortcut is external (from another model) or internal (from another package in the present model).

Status

Specifies the status of the target model, which may affect what information is available for external shortcuts if the target model is closed or not found.

For external shortcuts, (and you have not selected to display all properties), only the name of the shortcut and target model are available. Otherwise, all properties can appear in accordance with the display preferences.

Object1 and Object2

[link shortcut only] Specify the names of the source and target objects which the link connects

Generate

[external shortcut only] Specifies that the shortcut should be generated when generating another model from the referencing model (see Generating Models and Model Objects).

Generated as
[external shortcut only] Specifies how the shortcut will be generated (see Generating Shortcuts and Replicas). You can choose between:

  • Shortcut - the shortcut is generated as a shortcut and retains its link to its target object

  • Object – the shortcut is generated as an independent object and is no longer linked to its target object
A shortcut property sheet also includes the following tabs:
Parent topic: Creating Shortcuts